by Peter Lee
As soon as all the three Administrators, namely, John Lee, Michelle Lee (children of the first family) and Connie (Lee Sr’s second wife) regained their composure from their fist fight after a heated argument, Connie stood up and said to Michelle, “There will be a police report”. She then left the meeting room. John looked at Michelle and said, “We are not here to start a fist fight but to negotiate with Connie on father’s assets. What the hell were you thinking? Michelle replied in anger and said, “John, that woman’s demands make me puke and I am ready to challenge her.” John raised his voice and said, “That does not mean you can beat her up. Do you know that you are now exposed to assault charges from your co-Administrator? Furthermore, Mum’s request for Connie to renounce her entitlement to the company’s shares held by father together with some of Mum’s joint name assets with father is now in limbo.”
Then Michelle said, “I am not bothered with her charges and I will tell Mum to hold on to her S$3 million from Singapore which Connie has an entitlement to until Connie agrees to our terms on her renunciation.” John shook his head and said, “How are we going to work together as joint Administrators if you are going to behave this way. As you know, father’s entire estate is to be transferred to all three of us as Administrators when the Letter of Administration (L.A.) is obtained. As for the company’s shares, they can be transferred to only one person and not three of us jointly. So, how are we going to take care of this? Dave (family lawyer) had already explained to us earlier about this. If you ask Mum not to release Connie’s entitlement on the S$3 million, we can forget about negotiation and just follow the distribution according to Intestacy Law. For that, you better explain to Mum.” Michelle then said, “John, I will transfer father’s 70% shares in three of our family companies to Mum first and then we will see what happens”. “What do you mean by that?” asked John. In response, Michelle said, “Well, I have some blank share transfer forms pre-signed by father.”
John said “My God, did you forge father’s signatures? “No” was Michelle response. She continued and said, “Father signed all these forms long before he died. He told me to use it when necessary. “Does Mum and the rest of our family know about this?” Michelle said “No. This is my last trump card since we have come to this stage of our problem. After all, if I transfer all these shares to mum, I don’t think it will be a problem with the rest of our families because in this way we can protect our family shares while we negotiate with Connie. I am going to instruct our Company Secretary to deal with the transfers.” In response, John said “I think if you do it at this stage, Mum is going to face a lawsuit for illegal transfer. Furthermore, I think our Company Secretary will not do it since it’s illegal.” Michelle then said, “Ok. Let me talk to the Company Secretary first. She immediately phoned the Company Secretary asking them whether they could transfer these shares before talking to her Mum.”
To be continued
